Teen whose jaw was left hanging from face in horror horse accident tells of 'miraculous' recovery and calls for surgeon to be knighted

  • Emily Eccles, 15, left with 1cm of skin keeping her jaw attached to her head 
  • She smashed into a gatepost while horse riding near Baslow, in Derbyshire
  • Surgeon rebuilt her face in five-and-a-half hour long operation
Emily Eccles, 15, suffered one of the worst facial injuries doctors have seen outside a war zone
PA
Stephanie Cockroft8 October 2019

A teenager who suffered one of the worst facial injuries her doctors have seen outside a war zone in a horror horse riding accident has asked for a knighthood for the surgeon who saved her face.

Emily Eccles, 15, was left with just one centimetre of skin keeping her jaw attached to the rest of her head after she smashed into a gatepost while out riding near Baslow, in Derbyshire, in August.

Emily was taken to Sheffield Children's Hospital after finding herself on the floor, holding what remained of the bottom of her face in her own hands.

But consultant facial reconstructive surgeon Ricardo Mohammed-Ali rebuilt her face in a five-and-a-half hour long operation which was such a success that the teenager was back at school for the start of term, just a month after the accident.

Now, two months on, Emily is seeing her scars fade by the day and hoping to persuade her parents to let her ride again.

Emily Eccles, 15, was injured in a horse riding accident
PA

She explained how she had been out riding with a friend and her family when her horse was spooked by an exhaust popping on a car.

The horse galloped along a country path but, after her feet came out of the stirrups and she fell to one side, her head hit a wooden post.

Emily said she remembers catching something red which flashed in front of her face as she fell.

"I just looked down and I was like, 'I don't know what that is'," she said.

She said that, once in the ambulance: "I just looked down and I could see teeth and bone and I said, 'is that my jaw?'."

 This graphic from Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation shows a pre-operation CT ccan of Emily's injuries
PA

Mr Mohammed-Ali pieced together Emily's face using three titanium plates, more than 160 stitches and managing to save all but one of her teeth.

The teenager, who is studying GCSEs at Wales High School, near Sheffield, and is also a talented skier, said that her horrified friends thought her injuries were like "some kind of zombie".

Emily said she first tried not to look, but accidentally switched on her selfie camera as she was messaging a friend.

"It was like something you see in a film, it was really quite horrific," she said.

Emily said her friends thought she was 'some sort of zombie'
PA

"At first I was thinking, I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm not going to look like me, I'm not going to have the same kind of life as I did before."

Now the teenager is thanking Mr Mohammed-Ali for a recovery her mother has called "miraculous".

"He said that in a year's time, from speaking distance, you won't even be able to tell that anything's happened," Emily said.

She said: "We can't thank him enough. Everything that he's done in his career up to that point led up to him being on call that night. If anything had gone any differently, I might not have had a bottom jaw."

The teenager, pictured in hospital, said her recovery is 'miraculous'
PA

Emily said she has written to the Queen to get the surgeon a knighthood and received a personal letter straight back from her secretary saying it had been referred to the relevant body.

"Saving people's lives and getting them back to normality definitely deserves some sort of recognition," she said.

Emily lives in a village just outside Sheffield with her teacher parents Michelle, 50, and Chris, 48; her brother Sam, 17, and their two dogs.

She said "I'm not a horse rider", but insisted: "I'd like to ride a horse again it's my parents I have to convince."

Mrs Eccles said she was "still thinking about it".

Mr Mohammed-Ali said: "It could have been worse, but it is one of the most significant injuries that I have seen in a child outside of areas of conflict."

Emily said she has written to the Queen in a bid to get the surgeon a knighthood
PA

He said: "Emily's injury was significant in that the entire left side of her lower jaw from the front of the jaw to the joint was pulled away from the face and only retained by a small strip of skin.

"The nerves that supply sensation to the lip and chin was torn on both sides. Branches of the facial nerve that move the muscles of the lower lip were severed on both sides. The lower part of Emily's face was only attached by a piece of skin."

He added: "I am extremely pleased with her recovery so far."

The family said they are determined to support The Children's Hospital Charity's fundraising to help improve the Emergency Department and provide a helipad above the hospital.

The air ambulance was called to Emily's accident but it was decided to go by road, partly because the helicopter currently has to land in a park opposite the building, her family said.

Additional reporting by PA News Agency.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in